User Controlled Ad Displays Via iPhone

Shortly after someone invented the cell phone, some other entrepreneurs developed the term mobile commerce. You can't blame them, as there would seem to be something compelling about tying doing business to a device that so many keep with them more religiously than their wallets. There have even been expanding efforts to let people buy merchandise in stores using their own handsets. And, of course, there's online advertising, after which Google and others lust. Now there's a new twist: using an smartphones iPhone to control an interactive merchandising display.

• Jun 5, 2009

Intel Wind River Buy Loosens Ties to Microsoft, Apple

Intel has been almost synonymous with PCs for decades. However, the acquisition of embedded systems vendor Wind River marks an historic shift for Intel, just as thoroughly as when the company originally exited the memory chip business. By acquiring top embedded systems software vendor Wind River, it not only turns its attention to the world beyond the personal computer, but goes into competition with major business partners Microsoft and Apple.

• Jun 5, 2009

Big Chip Decline in 2009, Rebound in 2010, Full Recovery Far Off

According to recent estimates from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the global semiconductor market in 2009 will see an almost 22 percent drop from the previous year. And even though growth is supposed to return in 2010 and increase in 2011, a slightly deeper look at the numbers suggests that full recovery is years off.

• Jun 5, 2009

EFF Tool Makes Facebook TOS-Type Controversies More Likely

Back in February, Facebook faced a firestorm of user anger over its changed terms of use, when The Consumerist noted a change in the terms of service that gave the company virtually unlimited rights over user content. Now the chances of someone noticing similar changes at other sites is greater because the Electronic Frontier Foundation has started a new service called TOSBack, which tracks 44 website policies over 20 organizations (including itself) and notes the differences.

• Jun 5, 2009

Google's Microsoft Fight Starts With Smartphones

I recently described how Google's Wave, a collaboration tool based on the new HTML 5 standard, demonstrated the potential for Web applications to unglue Microsoft's hold on customers. My post quoted Gary Edwards, the former president of the Open Document Foundation, a first-hand witness to the faile...

• Jun 5, 2009

Google's Long Shot At Kicking Microsoft Off The Desktop

I recently described how Google's Wave, a collaboration tool based on the new HTML 5 standard, demonstrates the potential for Web applications to unglue Microsoft's hold on customers. My post quoted Gary Edwards, the former president of the Open Document Foundation, a first-hand witness to the faile...

• Jun 8, 2009

Microsoft Declares The End Of Software

The irony of hearing Microsoft server and tools division president Bob Muglia hold forth on the benefits of software as a service (SaaS) yesterday was of a richness perhaps only Marc Benioff could fully appreciate. When I sat down with the Salesforce CEO last year to talk about the competition th...

• Jun 4, 2009

EMC - NetApp Fight Looks Like The Archie Comics

I don't think there's another industry that sexualizes mergers and acquisitions quite like IT. You wouldn't think anyone would characterize the competition between EMC and NetApp over data deduplication vendor Data Domain as a "love triangle," as veteran storage reporter Chris Priemesberger did, b...

• Jun 4, 2009

A Netbook By Any Other Name Is Just Plain Silly

What is going on with companies and their distaste for the term netbook? Clearly this is a market that will be important. Intel is already seeing netbooks cannibalize 20 percent of notebook sales. That's one big chunk of business. So you could understand how vendors of all stripes want in on the fun and, hopefully, market domination. Only the rebranding and repositioning in the market is really sounding goofy.

• Jun 4, 2009

Cisco Challenge: Divided Channel Loyalties [UPDATED]

Cisco's latest plan to "grow, motivate and evolve" its sales channel partners to better emphasize virtualized data centers may sound like the type rah-rah that all tech vendors seem to undertake now and again. Usually it's actually doublespeak for increasing sales volume by lowering the amount resellers can make on any one deal. But for Cisco, the issue is far more critical. By entering new markets, the company is putting its channel, and itself, to a test that neither may be able to win.

• Jun 4, 2009

It's Official: Apple to Build Massive Data Center

My colleague Michael Hickins discussed the rumors that North Carolina was going to cut a huge tax break deal for Apple, which was planning a server farm in the state. Now it's a go.

• Jun 3, 2009

Cisco Executives Show UCS Weakness

Cisco's attempted hijacking of the data center isn't off to the greatest start. Speaking at the company's partner conference in Boston today, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior touted numbers that actually reflect pretty poorly on the company's attempts thus far to convince customers to bet the future of t...

• Jun 3, 2009

Apple Stores Still King of Retail Selling

A recent report of just how much money a couple of Apple's Manhattan retail store locations made (via AppleInsider) got me wondering about what the average company store made. On working out the numbers, I was stunned. You'd expect other retailers would line up at the company's doors, begging for lessons.

• Jun 3, 2009

Microsoft Beating VMware 'Every Single Day'

Microsoft doesn't miss an opportunity to poor-mouth the economy these days, and I'm beginning to think that this posture isn't a way of making excuses for lackluster performance, but actually a way of driving business. Today Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's key server and tools division, and ...

• Jun 3, 2009

May Tech Job Cuts Up Sharply

We got the May job cut numbers from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and the welcome trend of lowering job cuts continues overall. Unfortunately, the tech sector bucked the trend, more than doubling announced layoffs compared to April.

• Jun 3, 2009

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